Peter Varley wrote:

>I think there's a misunderstanding here.  The composers listed were
>*either* chess-players *or* mathematicians.  It's not really surprising
>that the ones who were mathematicians were excessively mathematical, is it?

In my experience most mathematicians play chess.

>IMO, the best-known composer who played chess was Prokofiev.  Does anyone
>think of Prokofiev's music as excessively mathematical or impersonal? And
>the best-known chess-player who also composed was certainly Philidor.

Prokofiev's favourite composer was Haydn.  I have read that a lot of
Haydn's music is based on number sequences.

Bob Draper
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